Saquon Barkley is having ‘a hard time sleeping’ but he’s still dreaming big: ‘Why not win another Super Bowl?’
The Eagles running back said he is ‘addicted’ to winning and is already thinking about how to get better this offseason.
Why not start our dynasty?
The five-word message from Saquon Barkley after a dominant win over the Kansas City Chiefs was enough to draw the attention of Eagles fans everywhere. But Barkley said Thursday he isn’t too focused on that at the moment. The running back still has one more day to celebrate the win — a championship parade down Broad Street on Friday — then it’s back to work for the three-time Pro Bowler.
“I said after the game, ‘Why can’t our dynasty start now?” Barkley said during an appearance at Raising Cane’s in Feasterville. “Probably had a little bit of champagne and other stuff in my system at the time. But you really can’t focus on that. You just got to enjoy the moment. It’s hard to win one and you kind of take it in, enjoy the moment and you start all over. And it kind of starts all over Friday. I don’t know when the ring ceremony is. That’s probably the last thing we truly celebrate being a Super Bowl champion and then it’s back to work.”
Barkley isn’t the only player on the team entering the offseason with this mindset. In fact, A.J. Brown went on social media just two days after becoming a Super Bowl champion and admitted that the championship glow started to fade in just 48 hours. And, like Barkley, he’s ready to get back to work.
It’s been a memorable season for the Eagles — and Barkley. The team finished the year with a 14-3 record and Barkley became the ninth player to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season (and set a record for most yards including the playoffs) on their way to hoisting up the Lombardi Trophy. Despite the team’s success, Barkley is still having trouble sleeping at night (but probably not as much as Giants owner John Mara).
“That’s the beauty of the team we have,” Barkley said. “A lot of guys have similar mind-sets. I saw A.J. [Brown] posted something about, Smitty [DeVonta Smith] posted something about it. I was with Jalen [Hurts] throughout the week and had conversations with him. It kind of sucks because when you’re a kid you’re super excited to accomplish this thing, but when you accomplish it, you have fun in the moment and then two nights ago I had a hard time sleeping because I’m thinking about how I’m going to attack the offseason.
“You kind of get — greedy is not the word — but addicted to it. You want to find ways on how you can hold that Lombardi up again and do it all over again. You take it in, you cherish it, you enjoy it and appreciate the fans. But the dynasty thing, you can’t get caught up in that. The way you do that is by putting the work in, and there’s a reason why we won. It wasn’t by accident, so we got to try to do it all again next year.”
» READ MORE: Saquon Barkley will cap off his ‘crazy week’ with a Super Bowl parade. He’s expecting ‘a party.’
Before Barkley was a Super Bowl champ, he was just a young running back from Penn State waiting to hear his name called in the 2018 NFL Draft. And, perhaps naively, he didn’t think he’d have to wait this long to win a title.
“I didn’t think — if you would have asked me at that time — I probably wouldn’t have said it would take seven years to win a Super Bowl,” Barkley said. “I thought it was probably a lot easier, but that’s life. There’s been a lot of adversity. There’s been a lot of ups and downs but it’s the perfect timing. To do it here and to do it here with these fans it’s truly amazing.”
But Barkley’s story doesn’t end here. He’s still got two years left on his deal with the Eagles. And he’s ready to get back to work.
“Dream starts over,” Barkley said. “It’s the same thing. It kind of sucks when you think about it because — I don’t think that’s the right word — but you can’t allow yourself to get too caught up into it. I guess you can kind of appreciate all the stuff you’re accomplishing when it’s all said and done. But that’s how it works. You’re Super Bowl champs right now and then you move on and you just got to do it all over again.
“So, that’s the dream. Why not have a better year than I have and why not win another Super Bowl?”